In an interview with Patrick Bet-David on his PBD Podcast, Cuba Gooding Jr. reflected on the world of hip-hop beef and recounted running into 2Pac on the day he was murdered in Las Vegas in 1996.
"I try not to voice any of my opinion when it comes to the rap songs, because just like everybody else I'm into that music, man," he said around the 1:28:50 point of the podcast, after which Bet-David brought up the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef. "I just heard about that. Somebody just got shot outside of Drake's house, did you see that? I mean, it's like a drive-by shooting in a gated community, that sounds a little crazy."
From there, Gooding Jr. said he wanted to say something to the rappers, especially following the shooting near Drake's home in Toronto. There's no indication that the beef is related to the shooting, but Gooding wanted to share the same advice to them that he gave to 2Pac before he was killed.
"I say to them just like I said to 2Pac when I saw him in the lobby of that hotel in Chicago," he said, referring to a run-in he had with the rapper in 1996. "He said, 'Hey man, help me, man, give me some advice.' I said, 'Hey man, just remember your artistry first, I know you're getting caught up with all this madness but you're an artist now.' He said, 'Thanks Cube.' He hugged me and he went off... Two, three weeks later he was gone."
Not long after that encounter, Gooding Jr. ran into Pac again. This time it was the day he was shot in a drive-by shooting in Vegas, which ultimately claimed his life at age 25.
"I don't like the whole conspiracy things, but that day he was in a convertible, like Rolls-Royce... I was in a hockey tournament so I was in Vegas as well playing hockey. [Mike] Tyson had his fight and I jumped out of the car and I ran up to his car. 'Pac, Pac, it's Cube,' and all these cars with the guns [pull up]," he recalled. "'No no no, that's Cube, man, that's Cube.' I go, 'Oh sorry man.' He goes, 'You good.' ... So that happens that day when the sun is out, and at night they got shot and there's no cops around. That's a true story, I was involved in that."
Gooding Jr. questioned where that response was when Pac was shot by an unidentified assailant later that day. "So where were all those undercover cops that pulled the guns on me when I tried to approach him sitting in his convertible?" he asked. "I'm just saying, it's weird that they were going to blow me away and I'm an Academy Award winner, that's what I'm saying."
Elsewhere in the same podcast, Gooding spoke about the lawsuit against Diddy in which he was accused of groping a man during an encounter on a yacht.
"This guy who’s suing him [is] going after the money, man. I’m sure, and by the way, I don’t know P. Diddy’s life. I don’t know what he’s going through," he shared, stressing that he's only hung out with Diddy a handful of times. "We were acquaintances, just like I just showed you. Two–three times I’ve seen him." He said he suggested he was mentioned in the lawsuit because of other similar lawsuits against him filed in the past.
